Maximize transfer credits or just jump in? (UMPI)

[canuckian]

Morning folks! First, I want to say thank you to all of you here for being so helpful and forthcoming with information. This is the first time I've heard of ACE and using alternative credits towards a degree, so I've been devouring everything I can from the forum over the last two weeks. As a Canadian, my options for getting a BA here are all extremely expensive. For the first time in a long time, getting my BA feels entirely within reach.

Edited to add a quick background summary of me:

• No other transferrable credits apart from what I'm working on now.
  
• I've been running my own design and digital marketing business for the last six years, and have taken/read a plethora of business-related MOOCs and resources.
  
• Essay writing (and writing in general) comes naturally to me, so I have zero issues with final papers and being able to breeze through them.
  
• Full time job, but my hours are regular and stable. No kids or other responsibilities.
  
• Limited funds, so ideally, I want this done as quickly and cheaply as possible.
  

Currently, I'm working through Sophia to complete courses that has some transfer equivalency based on ashkir's extremely helpful Wiki and thread posts. I'm averaging about 1-2 completed courses a day, with a 90%+ in each course. I have six courses done now, with one pending, thanks to a touchstone. My original plan was to more or less follow ashkir's guide. Now, though, I've been rethinking a few things, especially since I'm concerned about the possibility of UMPI reviewing Sophia and other ACE credits. I feel like I should just jump in as soon as I can?

Given the information I've laid out so far, what are the chances of me finishing a BABA with a marketing concentration at UMPI in 2 terms, max 3 terms (but I REALLY would prefer to get it done in 2) with the following in mind:

- I'm going to complete all of the non-touchstone Sophia courses (I'm still debating if I want to do English Comp 1 with Sophia, but I'm not impressed with their TAT so far with the one touchstone I had to do for Communication at Work. From what I've read, I'm for sure not doing English Comp 2, even though as a published author, English Comp should be an easy subject for me)
- I'm likely going to take a Bio course with lab with study.com plus one upper level course.

I planned on using InstantCert for Spanish, Marketing, and Managerial Accounting, and American Governance, along with 1-2 other courses from study.com. I saw that UMPI's YourPace offers French 101, though, and I'm fairly certain I'll have an easier/faster time with French than Spanish. Would you advise that I still complete Marketing, Managerial Accounting, and American Governance with InstantCert? Is it doable to get those three courses completed, along with the study.com Bio and UL course before my intended enrolment date (August cutoff)?

What would y'all recommend is my best course of action? Fully maximize my transfer credits or primarily do just the Sophia courses and dive in with UMPI? If I don't take any InstantCart courses, according to my spreadsheet (unless I've calculated wrong), I'll have to do 18 courses at UMPI.

[rachel83az]

Based on experiences posted in UMPI thread, I would recommend avoiding UMPI's French. If you use vocabulary not actually taught in the UMPI lessons, you fail. It's bizarre.

So I would suggest doing Sophia, biology @ SDC, and then Spanish or French through whatever means possible. Other than that, it mostly sounds like maximizing credit brought to UMPI is not worth the time/energy/money spent.

[canuckian]

Based on experiences posted in UMPI thread, I would recommend avoiding UMPI's French. If you use vocabulary not actually taught in the UMPI lessons, you fail. It's bizarre.

So I would suggest doing Sophia, biology @ SDC, and then Spanish or French through whatever means possible. Other than that, it mostly sounds like maximizing credit brought to UMPI is not worth the time/energy/money spent.

I haven't seen those posts yet re: French at UMPI, so thank you for letting know! I'll look into the options for French given to me in my other thread, and have a deeper look with that vs InstantCert's Spanish 1, then. 

And that's more or less the conclusion I've reached after reading the UMPI threads as well, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't too far off!

[rachel83az]

I just tried to find the posts again and I can't figure out where they went. But someone got marked down for using vocabulary words in their biography that were not taught in the lessons. The French teacher insisted that all the vocabulary needed was in the lessons, despite not teaching words that might be important to some - such as orphan or step-parents or something like that.

[dfrecore]

I would advise you to do the following:
1) go to LTI and take one of the online exams for French (oral, written, listening and/or reading): https://www.languagetesting.com/lti/prod...ng_id/7130? (these are ACE-recommended for college credit)
2) go as quickly as possible through Sophia, taking everything you want except English Comp
3) go to Study.com and take Bio w/Lab and a course of your choice

Reminder that the degree plan ashkir did was for the BLS, which is not the same as the BABA - you're going to want to change it up a bit because there are far fewer free electives, so you won't want to take everything, it will waste time and money. Instead, try to plan it out better.

I'd also try to see what courses you can take at Study.com that will count towards the core especially - there are just a LOT more courses in this degree that won't be covered by Sophia, and you may want to think about taking some of them through Study.com (I think someone put a post on here for those). You are going to want to see what's the better option - pay $200/mo at Study to take some courses, or go ahead and go through UMPI to start. I think there will be a balance - some of each.

[ss20ts]

Morning folks! First, I want to say thank you to all of you here for being so helpful and forthcoming with information. This is the first time I've heard of ACE and using alternative credits towards a degree, so I've been devouring everything I can from the forum over the last two weeks. As a Canadian, my options for getting a BA here are all extremely expensive. For the first time in a long time, getting my BA feels entirely within reach.

Edited to add a quick background summary of me:

• No other transferrable credits apart from what I'm working on now.
  
• I've been running my own design and digital marketing business for the last six years, and have taken/read a plethora of business-related MOOCs and resources.
  
• Essay writing (and writing in general) comes naturally to me, so I have zero issues with final papers and being able to breeze through them.
  
• Full time job, but my hours are regular and stable. No kids or other responsibilities.
  
• Limited funds, so ideally, I want this done as quickly and cheaply as possible.
  

Currently, I'm working through Sophia to complete courses that has some transfer equivalency based on ashkir's extremely helpful Wiki and thread posts. I'm averaging about 1-2 completed courses a day, with a 90%+ in each course. I have six courses done now, with one pending, thanks to a touchstone. My original plan was to more or less follow ashkir's guide. Now, though, I've been rethinking a few things, especially since I'm concerned about the possibility of UMPI reviewing Sophia and other ACE credits. I feel like I should just jump in as soon as I can?

Given the information I've laid out so far, what are the chances of me finishing a BABA with a marketing concentration at UMPI in 2 terms, max 3 terms (but I REALLY would prefer to get it done in 2) with the following in mind:

- I'm going to complete all of the non-touchstone Sophia courses (I'm still debating if I want to do English Comp 1 with Sophia, but I'm not impressed with their TAT so far with the one touchstone I had to do for Communication at Work. From what I've read, I'm for sure not doing English Comp 2, even though as a published author, English Comp should be an easy subject for me)
- I'm likely going to take a Bio course with lab with study.com plus one upper level course.

I planned on using InstantCert for Spanish, Marketing, and Managerial Accounting, and American Governance, along with 1-2 other courses from study.com. I saw that UMPI's YourPace offers French 101, though, and I'm fairly certain I'll have an easier/faster time with French than Spanish. Would you advise that I still complete Marketing, Managerial Accounting, and American Governance with InstantCert? Is it doable to get those three courses completed, along with the study.com Bio and UL course before my intended enrolment date (August cutoff)?

What would y'all recommend is my best course of action? Fully maximize my transfer credits or primarily do just the Sophia courses and dive in with UMPI? If I don't take any InstantCart courses, according to my spreadsheet (unless I've calculated wrong), I'll have to do 18 courses at UMPI.

I would complete all of the courses except the foundations and English Comp courses on Sophia. Eng Comp 1 & 2 is MUCH easier and faster at UMPI. You write 1 paper at UMPI instead of 5 or 7 like Sophia. The grading on Sophia was also awful when I attempted it. I worked on Eng Comp 2 for 2 months and finally gave up. I completed Eng Comp 2 in 3 days at UMPI. 

I would take Biology 101L intro to Biology with Lab from Study.com. I would take American Government, Marketing, Managerial Accounting, and Spanish 1 from InstantCert. They're fast, easy courses. Save your UMPI time and tuition for the UL courses and Eng Comp. 

You'll want to transfer in as much as possible to complete the degree in as few terms as possible.

---

Based on experiences posted in UMPI thread, I would recommend avoiding UMPI's French. If you use vocabulary not actually taught in the UMPI lessons, you fail. It's bizarre.

You do NOT fail!!!! You have a rough draft which is sent back to you for changes. I used words we had not covered and didn't fail. In fact, I earned an A in the class. You have to use words from the course content. That's explained in the instructions for the Final Assessment.

---

Reminder that the degree plan ashkir did was for the BLS, which is not the same as the BABA - you're going to want to change it up a bit because there are far fewer free electives, so you won't want to take everything, it will waste time and money.  Instead, try to plan it out better.

Ashkir did NOT complete the BLS. He completed the BA in Business Admin.

[rachel83az]

Based on experiences posted in UMPI thread, I would recommend avoiding UMPI's French. If you use vocabulary not actually taught in the UMPI lessons, you fail. It's bizarre.

You do NOT fail!!!! You have a rough draft which is sent back to you for changes. I used words we had not covered and didn't fail. In fact, I earned an A in the class. You have to use words from the course content. That's explained in the instructions for the Final Assessment.

It's not an automatic fail but I still count it as a fail. Someone else used some words not used in class and got back poor marks on their rough draft and was told to rewrite it. That's not good.

[canuckian]

I would advise you to do the following:
1) go to LTI and take one of the online exams for French (oral, written, listening and/or reading): https://www.languagetesting.com/lti/prod...ng_id/7130? (these are ACE-recommended for college credit)
2) go as quickly as possible through Sophia, taking everything except English Comp
3) go to Study.com and take Bio w/Lab and a course of your choice

Reminder that the degree plan ashkir did was for the BLS, which is not the same as the BABA - you're going to want to change it up a bit because there are far fewer free electives, so you won't want to take everything, it will waste time and money.  Instead, try to plan it out better.

I'd also try to see what courses you can take at Study.com that will count towards the core especially - there are just a LOT more courses in this degree that won't be covered by Sophia, and you may want to think about taking some of them through Study.com (I think someone put a post on here for those).  You are going to want to see what's the better option - pay $200/mo at Study to take some courses, or go ahead and go through UMPI to start.  I think there will be a balance - some of each.

That's a good point about SDC. I'll do some cost/time calculations and comparison, thank you! Based on their course requirements, I def know I'll need to take a lot of the core courses with UMPI, and have prepared for that!

I would complete all of the courses except the foundations and English Comp courses on Sophia. Eng Comp 1 & 2 is MUCH easier and faster at UMPI. You write 1 paper at UMPI instead of 5 or 7 like Sophia. The grading on Sophia was also awful when I attempted it. I worked on Eng Comp 2 for 2 months and finally gave up. I completed Eng Comp 2 in 3 days at UMPI. 

I would take Biology 101L intro to Biology with Lab from Study.com. I would take American Government, Marketing, Managerial Accounting, and Spanish 1 from InstantCert. They're fast, easy courses. Save your UMPI time and tuition for the UL courses and Eng Comp. 

You'll want to transfer in as much as possible to complete the degree in as few terms as possible.

I think I'm just psyching myself out about InstantCert for some weird reason. I registered for their Spanish course this morning to see if it's doable versus trying for a French credit with my knowledge now, and from what I'm seeing, it's absolutely doable.

This is my current degree plan based on research here and current (subject to change, likely, I know) Sophia to UMPI transfers: https://www.notion.so/ce162c671b8640d0b6...7eeb778951

I know I'll likely have to take a whole bunch of the Major/Concentration courses at UMPI, but do y'all see anywhere I can optimize things further based on your experience as UMPI students? I'd appreciate any feedback, as well as corrections in case my understanding of the GenEd requirements is wrong.

[ss20ts]

Based on experiences posted in UMPI thread, I would recommend avoiding UMPI's French. If you use vocabulary not actually taught in the UMPI lessons, you fail. It's bizarre.

You do NOT fail!!!! You have a rough draft which is sent back to you for changes. I used words we had not covered and didn't fail. In fact, I earned an A in the class. You have to use words from the course content. That's explained in the instructions for the Final Assessment.

It's not an automatic fail but I still count it as a fail. Someone else used some words not used in class and got back poor marks on their rough draft and was told to rewrite it. That's not good.

The instructions TELL you what to use!

---

I think I'm just psyching myself out about InstantCert for some weird reason. I registered for their Spanish course this morning to see if it's doable versus trying for a French credit with my knowledge now, and from what I'm seeing, it's absolutely doable.

This is my current degree plan based on research here and current (subject to change, likely, I know) Sophia to UMPI transfers: https://www.notion.so/ce162c671b8640d0b6...7eeb778951

I know I'll likely have to take a whole bunch of the Major/Concentration courses at UMPI, but do y'all see anywhere I can optimize things further based on your experience as UMPI students? I'd appreciate any feedback, as well as corrections in case my understanding of the GenEd requirements is wrong.

Don't psych yourself out! InstantCert doesn't have speaking. To me that's a HUGE bonus.

You don't need the Intro to Poli Thought on Study.com. The Sophia Ethics course fills that GEC.

Before taking Business 310 on Study I would check with UMPI and see if that course will transfer in for BUS353.

Have you seen someone transfer Communication at Work on Sophia in for PCJ215? I don't remember seeing it transfer in that way.

The rest looks like you're on the right path. You will have a lot to take at UMPI due to the major requirements.

[dfrecore]

My mistake - I thought Ashkir got a BLS. I would still limit the number of Sophia courses so as not to go over - no sense wasting time and money on things you don't need.

---

Based on experiences posted in UMPI thread, I would recommend avoiding UMPI's French. If you use vocabulary not actually taught in the UMPI lessons, you fail. It's bizarre.

You do NOT fail!!!! You have a rough draft which is sent back to you for changes. I used words we had not covered and didn't fail. In fact, I earned an A in the class. You have to use words from the course content. That's explained in the instructions for the Final Assessment.

It's not an automatic fail but I still count it as a fail. Someone else used some words not used in class and got back poor marks on their rough draft and was told to rewrite it. That's not good.

I agree - it's dumb.  When you take a 101 course and you're already fluent, you should not be penalized for it.

I think you're better off trying to test out (like at a college) or taking the CLEP or ACTFL/LTI exams to show competency. Much faster and easier.